Bush's REAL Plan: Bomb Iraq into "Submission"

Bush is now making this grandiose statement that the US can win a "complete victory" in Iraq. It appears that his new confidence in this direction is because he has decided to bomb the hell out of Iraq - again. I.e, he's pulling an LBJ. Remember how well his escalated bombing of Vietnam worked. As in NOT.

The way Bush is "packaging" this brutal scheme is that he simply wants to make it possible to use fewer troops. But this makes his whole scheme even more sick - instead of just accepting that the US should have a solid withdrawal plan, he is going to try to keep his war going through sheer brute force.

Here's the story from the Guardian....

US MAY USE PLANES AS SUBSTITUTE FOR TROOPS IN IRAQ

The Bush administration is considering a plan to put America's awesome airpower at the disposal of Iraqi commanders, as a way of reducing the number of US troops on the ground. The plan is causing consternation among commanders in US air force, who say it could lead to increased civilian casualties and lead to airstrikes being used as means of settling old scores.
According to an article in the New Yorker magazine by Seymour Hersh, the possibility of using airpower as a substitute for American troops on the ground has caused unease in the military, with air force commanders objecting to the possibility that Iraqis will eventually be responsible for target selection.

"Will the Iraqis call in air strikes in order to snuff rivals, or other warlords, or to snuff members of your own sect and blame it on someone else?" a senior military planner told the magazine. "Will some Iraqis be targeting on behalf of al-Qaida, or the insurgency, or the Iranians?"

With the White House under increasing pressure over its handling of the war in Iraq, senior administration figures are for the first time signalling the possibility of significant troop reductions. In a departure from previous statements the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said last week that the training of Iraqi soldiers had advanced so far that the current number of US troops in the country probably would not be needed much longer.

However, there remains scepticism about the ability of Iraqi forces to take over from the 160,000 US troops in the country. Under the plans reported in the New Yorker, air power will be used to try to fill the gap left by troop reductions. But with the insurgency operating mostly within urban environments, and planes relying on laser-guided bombs directed from the ground to try to avoid collateral damage, there are fears that turning the process over the Iraqis could lead to increased civilian casualties.

"The guy with the laser is the targeteer. Not the pilot ... The people on the ground are calling in targets that the pilots can't verify. And we're going to turn this process over to the Iraqis?" a former high-level intelligence official said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1652244,00.html